Dr Jane Goodall-Messenger of Hope

updated January 24, 2024

Dr. Jane Goodall, an Inspiring Woman

• The Barbie Inspiring Women Series honors ethologist and activist Dr. Jane Goodall, DBE, founder of the Jane Goodall Institute (more at janegoodall.org), with a collectible Barbie doll made from recycled materials.
• The Dr. Jane Goodall Barbie doll comes equipped with a notebook and a pair of binoculars and wears field attire featuring a khaki shirt, shorts, and boots.
• This collectible doll is joined by a figure inspired by one of her most famous subjects, chimpanzee David Graybeard.
• The Dr. Jane Goodall Barbie doll is the first in the Inspiring Women Series to be made from recycled materials.
• This celebration of Dr. Jane Goodall’s decades of dedication, ground-breaking research, and heroic achievements makes a great gift for collectors and kids ages 6 years old and up.

(This and other posts on this blog contain affiliate links that may pay a small commission to this blog, while you pay nothing extra, but only if you click, look, and make a purchase. Quite a deal for us both. )

In the Shadow of Man-and chimpanzees

In 1960,26 year old Jane Goodall went to Tanzania to study chimpanzees. No one had studied chimps before, so little was known about their behavior in the wild. Biologically and genetically, chimps are closer to humans than any other animal, so scientists believed understanding their behavior could shed light on some aspects of human behavior.

Jane roamed the forests of the Gombe Stream Chimpanze Reserve in Tanzania watching the chimps first with binoculars then with direct observation at close range, even occasionally close enough to touch them. Her mother Vanne lived with her and a photographer Hugo van Lawick joined them.

Working together with nature and animals as their common interest,Jane and Hugo fell in love and married. Eventually she had a staff of research assistants and students involved in observation and reporting about the chimps and other animals.

In this book, written 10 years later, Dr. Goodall details her years of living among the chimps and her detailed observations and conclusions about their behavior. (For which she earned her doctorate degree.)

“like humans, chimpanzees are omnivores, feeding on vegetables, insects, and meat.”

Dr Goodall

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Harvest for Hope-A Guide to Mindful Eating

Jane Goodall is just as interested in people as she is in chimpanzees. Despite the title this book is not about dining while listening to soothing music by candlelight to relax and de-stress.

Jane Goodall wants us to manage stress , not so much our own, but the stress of our planet, by producing, transporting, preparing, and eating our food in ways less harmful and wasteful to us and our planet.

Our food choices affect the environment as much as the environment affects our diet.

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Goodall reflected back on her life as a child in England when her family’s food supply was limited by the shortages of a world war. Even in peacetime, they ate what was grown locally and seasonally, rather than food flown in from distant lands. Her nutrition ideas are not new or unique, but she helps us realize our food choices affect the environment as much as the environment affects our diet.

Dr. Goodall recommends buying locally grown, organic foods exclusively. She advocates a meat-free diet. She urges us to waste less. She believes we need to “take back food productions from large corporations.”  By doing so, we will be healthier and so will our planet.

Dr. Jane advocates humans avoid

• GMO (genetically modified organism) foods
• meat
• imported food
• bottled water
• fast food
• refined processed carbs
• concentrated and synthetic sweeteners
• commercial oils

Dr. Jane encourages us to

• Take back food production from large corporations
• Waste less.
• Use a filter for drinking water
• Eat organic locally grown food.
• Eat fruits, vegetables, legumes
• Use olive oil, herbs, seasonings

Dr. Goodall’s advocacy in a pandemic

In this July 3, 2020 interview with CBS News she said ,

we brought this on ourselves… the scientists that have been studying these .. zoonotic diseases ( jump from an animal to a human) have been predicting …this. As we chop down at stake tropical rainforest, We’re driving deeper and deeper, making roads throughout the habitat, which … brings people and animals in contact with each other.

People are hunting the animals and selling the meat, or trafficking the infants, and all of this is creating environments which are perfect for a virus or a bacteria to cross that species barrier and sometimes, like COVID-19, it becomes very contagious and we’re suffering from it. 

Prior to the onset of the pandemic, Dr. Goodall averaged traveling 300 days per year on behalf of the Jane Goodall Institute teaching, lecturing, and advocating for care of our environment. COVID-19 stopped her travel, but not her work.

From March 2020, instead of traversing the globe, she brought the world to her family home in Bournemouth England. From her small attic bedroom filled with mementos of her travels, books, old photos, and the single bed she sleeps on, she gave interviews and lectures by video on her laptop.

She planned to begin traveling again in 2022 but not the intense schedule pre-pandemic; she can reach more people online. According to an interview in TIME, she will “spread hope and inspire people for as long as she can, for the sake of future generations.”

At 87, one never knows quite what the future holds. I’m about to leave the world, and leave it behind me with all the mess. Young people have to grow up into it. They need everybit of help they can”

Dr. Goodall, TIME, October 11/18, 2021

a final thought about pandemics

But we know if we don’t stop destroying the environment and disrespecting animals — we’re hunting them, killing them, eating them; there will be another one. It’s inevitable.

Dr. Jane Goodall

Dr. Goodall’s latest book is

The Book of Hope: A Survival Guide for Trying Times (Global Icons Series) 

In The Book of Hope, Dr. Jane focuses on her “Four Reasons for Hope”:

• The Amazing Human Intellect,
• The Resilience of Nature,
• The Power of Young People, and
• The Indomitable Human Spirit.

Looking at the headlines―the worsening climate crisis, a global pandemic, loss of biodiversity, political upheaval―it can be hard to feel optimistic. And yet hope has never been more desperately needed.

In this urgent book, Jane Goodall, the world’s most famous living naturalist, and Douglas Abrams, the internationally bestselling co-author of The Book of Joy, explore through intimate and thought-provoking dialogue one of the most sought after and least understood elements of human nature: hope.

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The Book of Hope touches on vital questions, including: How do we stay hopeful when everything seems hopeless? How do we cultivate hope in our children? What is the relationship between hope and action?

Filled with moving and inspirational stories and photographs from Jane’s remarkable career, The Book of Hope is a deeply personal conversation with one of the most beloved figures in the world today.

While discussing the experiences that shaped her discoveries and beliefs, Jane tells the story of how she became a messenger of hope, from living through World War II to her years in Gombe to realizing she had to leave the forest to travel the world in her role as an advocate for environmental justice. And for the first time, she shares her profound revelations about her next, and perhaps final, adventure. (an Amazon affiliate link)

exploring the HEART of health for people and the planet

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Before you leave, read about another Inspiring Woman